Etsy Beadweavers Challenge - 12 hours left!

You have 12 hour left to vote on the September Challenge Entries for the Etsy Beadweavers' blog. I have a piece in the running, but I didn't wind up voting for myself! That's how blow-me-outta-the-water just damn GOOD some of the bead-weavers on Etsy are.

Beadweaving is possibly not fully understood by people outside the craze. All these pieces are made of beads and loops of repeated threading - that's it. No backing, armatures, fabric, glue (usually not) -- just beads, thread, talent and a hell of a lot of time.


Go, really, view the entries, even if you don't want to vote, but really it's fast and anonymous and you *know* you have a favorite.

text + object

Because I'm on a conceptual ornament kick:




Cork and text ring by Sandy Simone jewelry (sandysimone.etsy.com)


Wear your Joyce. Simply lovely, by Tillybloowm (tillybloom.etsy.com)

Not jewelry, a painting. A little 5x7 painting.
I love.



artis3letters.etsy.com - yes there are a ton more in this series, as you'd expect. I also love the questions/Pollack paintings.

Unrelated note:

can someone, one of you indie kids, someone explain the Blythe thing to me?
As someone who ignored dolls or tormented them in favor of stuffed animals, I am just missing it altogether. Kthanks.

Ok, this is mine

Yes, I purchased this. Yes, it is Ron Jeremy. Click him and you go to the etsy shop of the talented, wicked Kate Black. Also of badbuttons fame.

I'm not THAT contrarian but yeah, a thread on the etsy forums in which various people were going ew ew ew ew about PORN and even more ew ew ew about Ron Jeremy may have pushed me over the edge. Maybe. Wink emoticon here.

I just think I need this. I'm not sure where one wears a Ron Jeremy pendant, but I shall make sure it goes boldly on some bad taste outings and horrifies people who need some horrifyin'.

You will find a rugged assortment of items that range from the cool (Mary Jane candy wrapper as magnet) to the offensive if you are easily offended. My favorites include the "Babies" and "Che" items, which really are best viewed onsite, as Kate's description is what makes it.

Birka Scandinavian

What wonderful fusion of traditional and modern design - clean tasteful - everything that comes to mind when you hear the catchy buzzword "Scandinavian Design"

Marie from Birka has been creating jewelry for the last 10 years, and worked in Sweden as an archaeologist. Her designs are as apt to include rocket and astro-motifs from the fifties as they are to include the valkyrie petroglyph at the left. Definitely take a wander through her etsy shop.

I'm in love with a German Film Star....

This would be Knut, the Berlin Zoo's little moneymaker.

More indie goodies soon, I promise.

Kitsch a riffic!

All that chic modernism had me REALLY hankering for some cheesy seventies stuff.

All these puppies went up on Etsy, along with new Maneki Neko necklaces.

Endtroducing....

Confession time.

I have a latent modernist streak. I love vintage, romance, junk stores, scouring, scavenging. I'm not going anywhere. But sometimes more is more and sometimes less is more.

I'm also a beader at heart and I love beadweaving and I missed it so much lately that I have started another line:

Ensō

Ensō is a higher-end alternative to the costume line at bombalurina, utilizing precious metal, 22K plated glass cylinder beads and semiprecious gemstones. Take a fast peek -you'll be surprised.

I'm also blogging about my modernist adventures:

http://ensojewelry.blogspot.com

Loco Rococco

Pushing into more vintage revamps, I decided it was time to make this coro bracelet a part of something bigger and grander.

I love camo colors, olives greens and blacks. I wanted to do something that was both really outre and really sophisticated in palette.

This resulted.

I'm really pleased. It does lie right, it just wasn't at the time of shooting - I may re-take those. Such is the low-budget life of a designer with no model - camera at arms length might be proving a little too lazy-ass but I wanted to get it up on Etsy. I think my favorite part of this was the recognition that the brooch I just designed is the perfect focal for this. I also like the introduction of the blue stones, so it's not too monochrome.

My little chickadee

A recent revamp. Usually I'm about more-is-more. This is not one of those times.

It deserved a really nice goldfilled chain.

In other jewelry news, there's a cubic right angle weave breakdown in the latest step by step beads - normally not my favorite magazine. But this has me quite excited - I've tried to puzzle that out on my own to no avail.

PS I love you

Oh, whoever StumbledUpon bombalurina.bigcartel.com - I love you. Big internet kisses to the stumblers.

For those who have only gone through Etsy, I've put a small collection of my *slightly* less kitsch flavored pieces in one spot for you to check out. So far, quite popular - enjoy!

Pearls gone wild

I love catrocks approach to beads, gemstone, and otherwise pretty and precious things to make them exciting, bold, at times a little industrial, and much more substantial. In a sea of vapid starlets these stand out like Dietrich. Without being, like, "wow Joooolery" Long Island bold, either.

See see? Springy, tangy, outsize and yet totally sophisticated. I love.

purse pretties

Purse pretties

May 2nd, 2007

This is an interesting item. It’s a collaboration between me and hullabaloo.

I was doing a little intra-etsy networking and I came across this shop. I’d wanted to network with someone who makes purses and do something like this for quite a while - add my bead embroidery to a fine object made by someone who you know….sews things together not just sews millions of doodads onto backing, which is about all I can muster.

The potential for things like this is one reason I think I’m going to keep my etsy shop no matter what happens. I got to meet a really nice, fun artist in the Chicago area, I made something great, and she’s been kind enough to buy a couple of my necklaces.

In other news I’m a little antsy in the pantsy about a large order of sterling silver from HK. I’ve dealt with these people before and they are fab - the mail tracking shows that it left HK but no delivery (how is it that every country has less confusing post than we do???) so I’m assuming it’s being prodded in customs. Did I buy insurance? Like an idiot, I did NOT.

Posted in etsy, mail, handbags, embroidery, beadwork, hullabaloo | Edit | No Comments »

LP Designs

I don't normally get excited over 70's redux things. The thing that I love about these, is that they're so not your hippie chick macrame chestnuts - they're...mod. Iconic. Simple.

LP designs makes these updated, fabulous, geometric beauties. I think they're simply awesome.

sevilla cuff

sevilla cuff
Originally uploaded by missbombalurina.

and again, today this went up on bombalurina.etsy.com I'm pretty pleased with it.

Etsy has been having some traffic issues, so I guess patience in viewing is in order. Hm.

More features tomorrow - I'm antsy to go window shopping.

Front Page

frontpage
Originally uploaded by missbombalurina.

well, thanks to the talented curatorial eye of Taryn from mymy, the giselle cuff made it to the front page of Etsy, where it lasted all of maybe a half an hour till it sold. I've had items on the front page before, but they haven't necessarily sold quickly or as a result of the exposure - in this case I would say it clearly did.

Which is wonderful, but it means I'm out a cuff and I'm trying to build inventory. Oh woe is me, right?

cute things

rings
Originally uploaded by missbombalurina.

Playing with vintage plastics here. Looks like Bombalurina will be doing the design fiesta as part of the Sound Unseen festival. Which is, amazingly, my first real show. I'm kind of freaking out about setup, inventory, promos and all that stuff. It's a month away. I'll post about it more.

So today easter eggy pastel cute. These are vintage button based rings with other vintage plastics, and I'm flagellating myself for not buying more of the button bases while I could.

duck.JPG
Originally uploaded by Temeculamom.

From my flickr friend's photostream. No it's not jewelry, it's just a drive by cuteness. So there.

what I did today

I'm gearing up for a possible wholesale deal. I'm not holding my breath, but it is making me revisit my cuff bracelets more seriously. Here's today's delight.

The cameo is a whopper - 55mm in diameter! So this is like some super hero power band thing.
Fully loaded and fully embroidered. Quite a bit of work.

MissMishMish

I've been promising to do some more in depth coverage of a couple of people whose work REALLY stands out for me - Yasmin Bochi, a designing powerhouse of only 24 years of age, responsible for yasminbochi.etsy.com, yasminbochi.com and the awesome blog Miss Mish Mish is the feature for today. She is based in Belgium and studies art science - and her grasp of art history and the richness of textile design history are really evident in her pieces.

yasminbochi.com is an amazing source for really one of a kind items. Yasmin's interest is vintage items and vintage imagery and customization with artwork and contemporary image transfer process. The thing I find most remarkable is that this stuff is very painterly, very lush, but retains a very modern contemporary here-and-now feel - it manages to be romantic but totally ducks the trap of boring sentimentality because it's so darn *interesting* to look at.

Here's a favorite of mine. Yes, it's not jewelry, but this is my puppet universe and I love bags:




So lovely!

Here's a link to the gallery page of bags on yasminbochi.com
and one to the jewelry page which is filled with stylish starlets and little Russian counting dolls.

I hope you love looking at these pieces as much as I do.

Cameos from my stash

I'm busy pulling cameos out of my stash and finding new and great ways to show them off. It's not Gramma's cameo jewelry.

This one sits on a strand of vintage resin pearls that I strung - giant 10MM ones (Wilmaaaaaa!)

The other focal is a lovely enamel brooch, also vintage, in nice shape. (I had to sacrifice the pinback for the sake of art here)

Another cameo presentation:

This one also shares space with a vintage pin, a rhinestone-and-brass number, as well as a vintage birthday card clipping under acrylic, a really sweet hand-assembled charm that I thought added some interest.

fluffington

The misery at the prom brooch

bluebirds love roses pin

Confession: I love fabric covered buttons. I toss and turn at night dreaming of an upholstery shop button cover-er and I wake up in a cold sweat. Fluffington.etsy.com creates confection-sweet accessories with fabric and buttons, but not without a little touch of irony.

Without which I would just not love it all like I do. Check the "misery at the prom" button. Yeah, I relate.

Minimal lust

If I were going to go on a buying binge, it would be with kspell.etsy.com

Aren't these stellar? I love the minimalist handling. In other items she uses mod, vintage, and even slightly kitschy items but always with this same, sleek appearance. Me Gusto mucho. I rarely wear jewelry (isn't that odd?) but this stuff appeals to my wearing sensibilities.

Here's another one that, oddly disparate as these things really are, works SO well. Super cute.